Sunday, November 09, 2008

Hard to Find Engineers in PG?

Updated Nov 12:
I was told the 'going-rate' for a degree-holding IC design engineer with roughly 4-years of work experience can fetch RM12k in Malaysia (KL) per month. That is significant amount of money, even for those who work in SG now.  If you are into IC design and find this figure tempting, it is time to reconsider other options ;)

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I like to browse job-searching sites. These sites contain a lot more of information than merely jobs: they also provide tell-tale signs about the job markets, average salary level, the health of a particular industry, and more. When piecing these bits and bytes of information together, one often can tell how a particular economy is doing well in advance.

Today I came across an ad at jobstreet, looking for people to fill software engineering positions in Penang, Malaysia. What shocked me is the salary level: S$5000 to S$8000 which is the standard salary level for software architects in Singapore. In other words, one will get at least RM12000 (S$1 ~= RM2.4) if that person is hired, and RM$12K is not small money, mind you. You may question: "This could be a typo." This is highly unlikely though because if it was in RM, no one will bother to apply from Singapore.


Upon clicking at that ad, here is the content. I am sure people as smart as you can tell which company this is. :P


A few questions to think about:

If companies in Malaysia have to look for people in Singapore and pay salary in Singaporean dollar, how attractive is Malaysia now and what are the incentives for high-tech companies to stay?

Moreover, given the current crime rate and tax rate, how attractive is Malaysia to those working in Singapore?

There are issues a lot more important and urgent to ponder upon for the government officials than wielding a weapon and shout stupid slogans. However, let's not expect too much... -_-

5 comments:

The Soothsayer said...

Software guys are paid pittance, really.

I was surprised to learn the salaries of hardware and RF guys with the same number of years of experience as us.

It'll be good if software engineers are paid more.

Cuppa Chai said...

You mean those hw guys have higher salaries? By how many % then?

The Soothsayer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Soothsayer said...

Decided not to leave any figures around. It's P&C, after all. ;)

Cuppa Chai said...

Understand. Thanks for the info though :)